If you read the Huffington Post, you would have to believe that the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are out of control and acted in an unprecedented fashion yesterday when they held hearings. The reality is that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was merely doing what he made an agreement with Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein to do. Meanwhile, led by Ranking Member Feinstein, Senate Democrats have brought unprecedented indignity and degradation to the modern Senate.

A few weeks back a voter intimidation and fraud ring was uncovered in Texas. Today it was uncovered that the funding for the scheme came from a Texas Democratic Party official:

A Fort Worth woman recently indicted on voter fraud charges paid others involved in the scheme with funds provided by a former Tarrant County Democratic Party leader, court documents filed this week say.

. . . The notice, filed Tuesday, states that Sanchez engaged in organized criminal activity in collaboration with her three co-defendants; Stuart Clegg, a former executive director for the Tarrant County Democratic Party; and others.

Much has been made in the press regarding the 53,000 voter registrations filed shortly before the registration deadline in Georgia that Secretary of State Brian Kemp was allegedly holding and not processing in order to suppress voters. But it turns out to be the usual story: Secretary Kemp was following state law by checking the identity numbers provided in the registrations before registering the new voters and many of the "new" voter registrations either belonged to people who did not exist or who were already registered to vote.

In a debate for a “local” statewide race with national implications, Minnesota Attorney General Candidate Rep. Keith Ellison again lied about his ties to racist, anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Rep. Ellison is also the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. His constant lying about the ties should be a red flag for a multitude of reasons including that an Attorney General is in charge of enforcing the law regardless of race or creed.

As the Washington Post detailed early this year when giving him four Pinocchios:

As Election Day comes closer, it is worth noting the many problems facing election officials. These “problems” are often a combination of election official incompetence and bad actors. What’s worse is they do not increase turnout, their stated purpose.

One example is the left's push for automatic or mandatory voter registration. This process has the effect of disenfranchising voters from party primaries (thus helping establishment candidates like Hillary Clinton over insurgent candidates like Bernie Sanders) whether intentionally or unintentionally. Mandatory registration cannot select a party for a person and serves to disfranchise more casual voters who only vote every four years in party primaries for President or the like.

Yesterday was Don McGahn's last day as White House Counsel. After serving President Trump as campaign counsel during his 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. McGahn served as White House Counsel during the pivotal first half of President Trump's current term. He played a vital role in vetting and recommending attorneys who respect the rule of law to serve as federal judges, including Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. With Mr. McGahn's advice, President Trump has nominated and the Senate has confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 29 U.S. Courts of Appeals judges, and 53 U.S. District Court judges. Currently 57 Article III court nominees remain pending before the Senate.

The real question now is why does the media give Michael Avenatti any air time? Before we get into the legal substance of one of his cases and while Republican opposition to Avenatti needs no explanation, we note that there is bipartisan opposition to Avenatti. For example, former New York Democrat Rep. Steve Israel wrote an Op-Ed in The Hill entitled "Michael Avenatti, please go away" and even Avenatti acknowledged Democrats hate him:

Establishment Democrats, Avenatti said, are trying to “discredit” him “so they can nominate some schlocky establishment Democrat” for president.

FEC Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub's personal staff continues to mount a political campaign against President Trump at the same time they consider enforcement cases involving President Trump. In many public pronouncements, Commissioner Weintraub's staff indicate they already have prejudged legal issues pending before the FEC. Some tweets appear to be posted during regular government work hours.

In what should be no shock, Michael Avenatti again got shot down for a groundless attack on Donald Trump. Not only did a federal judge dismiss his client's defamation case against President Trump, he ordered Avenatti's client to pay Trump’s legal fees.

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from adult film actress Stormy Daniels in which she claimed that President Trump defamed her when he suggested her allegation that she was threatened to stay quiet about their relationship was a lie.

Federal District Judge S. James Otero had suggested during a late September hearing that he was skeptical of Daniels’s claim on First Amendment grounds. The ruling ordered Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, to pay Trump’s legal fees.

The dust has more or less settled from the Kavanaugh confirmation battle, but we will feel its effects for some time to come. It will take an entire term of the Supreme Court to begin to assess the impact of Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the court itself, but the political consequences are more immediate and tangible. . . .